Letter from Garth Moller in Russia
May 16, 2007
Dear Friends,
An expanded library serves the needs of the kindergarten to eleventh-grade students, and it provides a quiet place for a game of chess.
We continue to have eventful years. Since the last letter, we have seen the debt of the Kargel and Baedeker School soar as high as it has ever been. With God’s help, we have brought much of it down during the course of this school year.
We have also seen an increase of interest in the school from local residents. In September we enrolled about five pupils from the immediate neighborhood, Krestovsky Island. More importantly, knowledge of the school is now spreading by word of mouth. We have had a large increase in inquiries and have begun to enroll for the next school year. And finally, this last year, we enrolled three pupils from Muslim families.
For the first time in its 15-year history, the Kargel and Baedeker school has a gymnasium for indoor physical education classes, a great advantage in Russia's harsh winters.
This kind of growth highlights a problem that is steadily demanding more attention. How does one present the Christian message to children that come from a variety of Christian backgrounds, from another religious background, or from a background without any religious input at all? This needs to be done by teachers from a variety of Christian churches who may have grown up in the faith or are recent converts, and who may have strong convictions on many questions. And we want to present the Christian message fairly and without compromise.
At the same time, we need to keep the pupils from Christian families. For the most part, these families are least able to cover the cost of education. We have been able to find sponsors for a number of these children, though not for everyone. Inflation has been running about 20 percent a year for the last several years. So each year the challenge to raise these funds has increased.
This spring, we have had Tom English with us helping to set up an accounting system that will allow me to get a better handle on our finances. Tom is from Ohio and has had much experience with installing computer-based bookkeeping systems. We are very grateful for his help.
Our challenges
- We need to develop materials to teach the Christian faith, taking into account that we have pupils from believing families, from Muslim families, and from families without any faith connection at all. We need to find a balance that does not merely repeat Sunday school but adds to knowledge, informs those who do not have a background in the Christian faith, and doesn’t compromise the fundamental demands of our faith. At the same time, we must avoid disparaging other faiths.
- We need to pay off our debt and begin the next phase of renovation. This includes the purchase of kitchen equipment required by the Health Department—a dishwasher, food preparation tables, a stove, and several sinks. We also need to change the electric wiring in the basement and gym.
- We need to find sponsors for children whose families cannot cover the cost of their education.
We continue to ask for your prayers. If you can, please consider giving to help our children cover the cost of their education.
In Christ,
Garth I. Moller
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 160
To contribute online to the Cargel and Baedecker School, visit the donation page.
